In Cambodia, payments to protect an endangered bird are no simple matter
19 April 2018
In recent years, cash aid has gained traction among NGOs working on everything from disaster relief to education. In the conservation sector, direct payments have been a cornerstone for decades. Payments have been used from everything from stopping poaching in Mongolia to maintaining forest in Malaysia. In Cambodia alone, there are numerous studies on the use of direct payment. But a close look at the nest protection efforts here hints at just how diligent implementers ought to be to ensure such programs work.

A recent study on the impact of the nest protectors by researcher Andrea Claassen, “Effectiveness of direct payments to increase reproductive success of sandbar-nesting river birds in Cambodia,” leaves little doubt of the efficacy of such payment schemes. The threatened bird populations have all risen since 2010, and — in the case of the river tern — the guarded nests fare better than unguarded nests by a factor of 12. The apparent simplicity, however, belies how truly difficult it can be to run a successful direct payment program.

“Overall, nest protection involving direct payments was highly effective, but required diligent use of nest exclosures, frequent monitoring, and strong community relationships,” notes the study, which was published last year in Bird Conservation International.
https://www.devex.com/news/in-cambodia- ... tter-92341